Dear Sister Rippstein...

For an excellent song click HERE




"Dear Sister Rippstein:
You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the Nicaragua Managua North Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, June 16, 2010. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language. Your assignment may be modified according to the needs of the mission president.

You have been recommended as one worthy to represent the Lord as a minister of the restored gospel. You will be an official representative of the Church. As such, you will be expected to maintain the highest standards of conduct and appearance by keeping the commandments, living mission rules, and following the counsel of your mission president. As you devote your time and attention to serving the Lord, leaving behind all other personal affairs, the Lord will bless you with increased knowledge and testimony of the Restoration and of the truths of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Your purpose will be to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. As you serve with all your heart, might, and strength, the Lord will lead you to those who are prepared to be baptized.

The Lord will reward you for the goodness of your life. Greater blessings and more happiness than you have yet experienced await you as you humbly and prayerfully serve the Lord in this labor of love among His children. We place you in our confidence and pray that the Lord will help you become an effective missionary.

You will be set apart as a missionary by your stake president. Please send your written acceptance promptly, endorsed by your bishop.

Sincerely,
Thomas S. Monson"



Wow. Okay so I guess I'm going to Central America. I'm apprehensive about food, living conditions and weather but I assume that's probably pretty typical. Other than that I'm totally thrilled and excited and looking forward to it. They eat iguana eggs...... (click on the 1st & 2nd videos HERE )



and worms and stinky cheese and guinea pigs and a whole lot of other stuff I don't want to say out loud because I don't want to jinx myself. I was reading on the Nicaragua mission page that someone said that Nicaraguans are very hospitable and in regards to drinking and eating, he said to just do it, get sick, pray for death, get over it, and enjoy the rest of the mission. It's all part of the experience. hahahah! oh goodness. It also is 80-95 degrees year round, and huuuuuuumid. It is a tropical wet/dry climate which means its dry like Nov-April, and it's raining constantly other than that. But, it's going to be beautiful. Too bad I can't touch the water. Oh well. The mission will be hard, but that's okay, I can do hard things.


Church Growth Report in Feb 2010:
"Missionaries serving in the Nicaragua Managua Mission report that the mission will be split this summer to create a second mission. The mission has seen tremendous success over the years and continues to show impressive results. Missionaries report that 60% of converts have been retained over the past year, much higher from previous years. Hundreds of baptisms occur monthly and the amount of growth has overwhelmed currently mission leadership for a nation with over 64,000 members, 100 congregations, and high inactivity. Nine stakes and six districts currently function."

My mission will be new right when I get there! Well.. not necessarily new but it's been split. We might open new areas even who knows. how crazy!


"You are scheduled to participate in phased training. You will be trained at the Provo MTC for approximately three weeks, after which you will travel to the Guatemala MTC, where you will receive six weeks of additional training. This split-training opportunity will aid your transition into the culture and enhance your learning of the Spanish language."

.........so I'm going to Guatemala for a time as well!! I feel SO privileged to be able to participate in phased training. Not many missionaries have the privilege to do so and I'm sure it's going to help oodles with my Spanish.


As far at temples go, there is not one in Nicaragua, but there is one in San Jose, Costa Rica,

and currently the Nicaraguan stakes are in the district of the Guatemala City, Guatemala temple.

However, I was looking online and it looks like 3 temples should be dedicated while I'm on my mission.

First, anticipated in late 2010 or early 2011, is the San Salvador, El Salvador Temple (look Kerri!!)
Next is the Quetzaltenango, Guatemala Temple, anticipated sometime in 2011.
And finally we have the Tegucigalpa, Honduras Temple, expected in 2012.

I don't know if I'll be able to attend any of the temple dedications or if I'll be able to visit any of these while on my mission (I highly doubt it, though I may get to go to dedications who knows), but they're all just popping up next to each other now. Nicaragua needs to be next hahah. At least I should be able to go to both Provo and Guatemala City Temples though!

I know the Lord will protect me and help me through the things that are hard. I will finally be able to learn the Spanish language, which I’m thrilled about, and I will probably have Spanish companions as well. I know that the Lord has called me there for a reason. To challenge me, to help the people there, to spread the knowledge of the Gospel, and so on. I’m so relieved to finally be able to have a specific time frame and place to prepare for and I feel good about my call. I’ve never been outside the U.S. before. This is going to be different. I’m looking forward to this experience and I know I will come out stronger and hopefully wiser, having helped many along their way. Even though there are mixed feelings on the surface, I know I was always meant to go. I love the Lord, I know the church is true, and I am excited to teach and help others.

Gesundheit!

UPDATE: Commissioned book illustration "Dustin"

Here's the final product! Pardon the way it's set up; some of the pages spill onto the other side. And most of the story is gone - these are just my fave pages - because if Ash decides to publish it later on she doesn't want it up here or anything. But it works. I think it turned out pretty good - it's in a childlike style - a direction that she wanted to take with it similar to if a kid had drawn the whole thing. Which is not far from the truth, lets be honest. Haha! For being so simple it took a great deal of time. It had to have taken me a minimum of 30 hours overall. Such a relief that it's completed. And luckily I'm getting paid for it too! Idk how much yet.. I went and talked to the people in the art dept and some art major friends of mine and they said I should charge about $60. Regular illustration work is in the hundreds to thousands. I don't know how I'll charge just yet. Let me know what you think of these bits and pieces and I'll pass any compliments on to Ashley.










If you would like to purchase one of these books (with all the pages of course) it's $20 (costs 14.50 to print, at least here it does). Just let me know.

This semester is killing me. WHY is it that every semester is worse than the last? Ugh. Painful. My brain hurts. I don't think I'll get straight A's which is irritating because I deserve them. I am unable to sleep very much, group projects keep coming up (lets face it - we all HATE those too because then our grade depends on other people AND it means you have to take extra time away from personal work to go figure out those projects). My semester-long projects are all becoming due, I have tests this way and that and every day there is always something to do, and not in a good way.

In spite of all the complaining (c'mon, it's good to vent), I am doing okay and I found out from my bishop that my call was sent out from Utah on Friday so in my mind, that means I should logically receive it this week. Or at the least, next week, due to crappy Rexburg mail systems. All things aside, I'm excited for April 8th. By then most of my stress will be gone and I will finally be able to breathe again. What was that like? Not sure. Anyways. I have to run to the next thing now. Goodbye!

I Think the Monkey is the Sultan

I have few goals with my blog.

I like to always at least start with a picture of me. So many blogs just show pictures of other people and you rarely see the writer themselves.
I write to keep family up on what's going on in my life. I usually do this with pictures. And so I don't post blogs until I get pictures.
This serves a dual purpose. I also write it so I remember things I wouldn't usually later on. Looking back I wish I'd posted more, especially during my first year at school. It's funny to read sometimes, because I did describe a few occasions that I'd forgotten till it reminded me.
I never thought of really making it a journal, though sometimes that is what it becomes. Like today. I guess that's because I already have a daily journal, a spiritual thoughts journal, and now I am carrying down an 'everything' journal. What's that?

An 'Everything' journal is where you just write down random thoughts throughout the day. You carry it with you at all times possible. I'm dedicating it to the thoughts that usually go unwritten and become forgotten. It's meant for thoughts, reminders, songs/books I want to remember to look up, quotes, lists, dreams, insights, revelations and realizations. I'm really excited about it. I sometimes think I have to write a full page when I write in my journal, and because it is something I intend to keep forever, I word things a certain way and it just seems a bit more formal and I also write at the end of the day so its usually just summarizing what I can remember, which isn't much. I've been blessed with the ability to learn, but to retain information and memories is a whole other ball game.

Coincidentally, our internet is having proxy problems at my apartment so that's why I don't have pictures or anything really right now anyways. Just whatever fragments of life that happen to be on my little flash drive. And so I have now come to the library, not knowing how or being able to do things without the internet for school. Ha. Juuuust kidding. Anyways while I was here I thought I'd write a short little blurb just about whatever. Because mom says I should post more, and I always do what she says, right? *cough...*

Yesterday I saw Leap Year again. Partly because of St. Patrick's Day, and partly because I absolutely adore it.
I encourage any chick who hasn't seen it to do so. It is probably at the dollar theaters for you guys. It's getting near the end of its run at our cheapo theater, with only one time slot per night now. Also, it is clean so there's no worries there. It's just funny and cute. Go see it. Now.

On that note, AVATAR comes to our cheapo theater TOMORROW!!!!!!!!!!!! There goes the budget! hahahah. I have plans to see it with friends saturday and again next week (or the next) with Steph & Quincy. And I'll probably see it a couple more times just myself. Because hey, its only $3. Two tickets equals 1 at our cheap theater during matinee in Houston. And I want to see it as many times as I can afford on the big screen. It's a glorious movie and just makes me happy. The other week I saw Sherlock Holmes there with friends, and I was coming in late right behind this huge family of all ages (mostly older generations rather than kids though). I heard the AVATAR trailer going on and almost fell over I was excited to see it. And those people were the WORST movie goers. I'm waiting to get past them, and I NEED to see the trailer, and they just enter the theater and decide to sit in the aisle a second just deliberating on where to sit and talking together. Great. Super. I'm glad to see you have a good relationship with your family and its a family night but PLEASE don't stop in the middle of the aisle with other people waiting to get past stuck behind ya. Needless to say I wormed my way through them quickly to my glorious AVATAR goodness. Couldn't miss it!

Lets see. Life is so hectic these days. All the semester long projects are becoming due, and the exams are coming quicker, and the daily assignments are relentless. In addition to that, I have been getting lots of flier requests from the relief society AND my part for the book I'm writing for Ashley is due tomorrow. And I'm only about halfway done with the line of the pages - haven't even started on color or adding the words. We should get it done in time though. My room is trashed. I don't have enough time to clean it presently. And since the internet is down I can't even do my last load of laundry cuz I'm not home for any length of time. And the clean clothes need to be folded and put away. Ugh. Maybe I'll tackle that tomorrow.

For those of you who don't already know, my mission papers went out 2 days ago. Stake pres says it should be here within 10 days. We'll see. Any guesses on where I'll go?
Make your guess right now.













... did you make it? Make sure it's clearly chosen in your head.













Okay now that you've had a chance to make a personal guess without being swayed by the guessing of others, I will tell you the most common responses I've had thus far.
Here we go! THE LIST:
Temple Square
Spain
Germany
China
Canada
New York
Brazil
California
Idaho
Japan
New Zealand
Europe (in general)
United States (in general)

As for personal guesses, I'm assuming I will stay in one of the Americas.

Where would I like to go?
Well, I really don't care where I go because that's where I'm needed and meant to be. Of my personal guessing I would prefer a stateside mission. If I got everything my way and got to choose? Well, outside the U.S., I'd pick the Ireland/Scotland mission. However if everything was up to me, then my dream mission wouldn't really be a specific place but rather made up of these qualifications:
Non-humid
Stateside
Foreign-speaking
Walking/biking mission
Area with lots of hills

And please don't be one of those to rub it in my face if I don't get these things. I really don't care if I don't get them, but yall asked where I'd pick so there you go. I've gotten more nervous/scared about the mission being so real within the last 9 days. I'm sure I'll be fine though. You can do anything with the Lord by your side. ha, that reminds me of something funny my friend said awhile ago:
"If faith moves mountains, that means you can threaten people. With MOUNTAINS."
hahahahah. Yay :)

I think I'll conclude with the deliciousness of a century. If you don't want to be addicted, you probably should not read further. But if you want your life to become infinitely better, follow this REALLY complicated recipe. It's for a dip that can be used for veggies and stuff but I use it as delicious chip dip.
Oh my goodness amazing, that's what we're talking about. Get a 16 ounce or whatever package of both sour cream and cottage cheese. I get the lowfat stuff since I eat a lot of it and though it's not that much better, every little bit counts right? Mix those two packages up together and then get a Ranch dressing packet and pour it in until you get just the right taste you prefer. I put in almost the entire pack for myself. I eat it with tortilla chips. Aaaaaand that's it. Yum-ness.

Well I think I'm going to get on my homework so I can see about getting other things done before my class later. Then I will be celebrating Erica's birthday with Mark & her. And then staying up late to at least get all the lines done for the book. LUCKILY that kind of work is pretty good because I just watch movies while working on it. I've mostly been watching Disney - I love looking for symbolism especially in those movies. Lion King is such a good one for repentance! And Princess & the Frog for faith. And Hercules for diligence, valiance and selflessness. And Beauty & the Beast for love. And Pinocchio.. oh man Pinocchio is a good one for many things. The most prevalent being agency and the Holy Ghost. I mean seriously. They practically define it at one point. Most of yall probably haven't seen it since you were waaay younger, so you should go watch it now. There are many more good ones in addition to these, but I don't feel like writing them now.

However, I would like to write a few Disney movies I think are waaay underestimated and under-appreciated:
Hercules
Pocahontas
Mulan
Bolt
Chicken Little
The Emperor's New Groove
Treasure Planet
Lion King 2
Tarzan
Brother Bear (1 & 2)
Robin Hood
Both Fantasias

k now I really gotta go. Cheers!

You Gotta Dig a Little Deeper...

.... to find out who you are. Diiiiig a little deeper - you're really not that far! When you find out who you are, you find out what you need. Blue skies and sunshine, guaranteed. Just wish upon that wishin' star cuz when you do, your dreaaaaams coooooome truuuuue!!

Well I have to say that the weather this year has been amazing. Just simply amazing. It's only been "FRIGGIN COLD!!" once or twice. Most of the time it's just been chill. Hahah, get it - chill?! Ha... anyways. Seriously though, I've loved it. So much more the improvement from my first semester of -30. More often it is 20-30 which is awesome, like you only need a jacket or even a hoodie. No scarves or gloves really necessary, unless you prefer them.

Side note: Isn't my hair getting long? I'm going to just keep on growing it out. I'm hoping to get it a little further past my shoulders. But not to my waist. WAY too much maintenance required.

Well, since the sem is almost over I suppose I should introduce yall to my roommates. I've really been slackin in this since my first year haha I don't even have real pictures, just pictures from our 'Ward Stalker List' - a list with pictures of all the apartments in the ward. And if you served a mission it says where you got sent - just for those crazy RM hunters

First is Maria, originally from Tacoma, Washington... well actually it says where they're from on their pictures so I'll leave that to them. I do know she's lived a bunch of places just because. I know she's lived in Cali for a time as well as Texas! woot woot. She misses it too haha. Knew we got her. She wants to be a nurse in the armed forces. That's pretty darn cool.
Next is Ashley, who kind of actually reminds me of Myra from my first year. She's bubbly, she loves to cook and clean and paint pictures (although just simple stuff, she's not an art major or anything), and at the same time she reminds me of Alexis because she is the momma of the apartment. She's majoring in child development and I think she wants to be a teacher or something but I forgot haha. I know she wants to be a mommy. Also, she is a Disney kid, who like Myra, lives right next to Disneyland and goes there often, just to hang out. We often have battles about which is better, Florida or Cali.
Next we have Amber. Amber is a sunshine daisy and she's always positive and she's always able to smoothe things over and she's always cute. She's majoring in dance I believe. She also leaves me fun lil notes every now and then. All of my roommates have more or less lived with each other since they started school, so they already have a culture going on and it's cool that I'm kinda welcomed into it
Finally we have Jess. She didn't live with everyone up till now, she is in through Amber. But they're all tight just the same. She is also majoring in dance and don't tell the other roomies but she is my favorite. She just gets me more and we can both really relate to one another. Also we love weird things like the Haka (a Maori war chant/dance) and stuff in other cultures.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand then there was one. ME! I have my own room which is the biggest blessing of this semester, well, that and the fact that my apt is right next to campus so I can get to classes within 10 min. So much better than having to leave 20+ min early just to get there on time, much less being early like I did at Nauvoo.
Do you like my name? Yup. Velma is my nickname as many of yall may or may not know. I've gone by it for over a year and a half or something and I love it. People remember you that way too, so my name is not forgotten like, ever. They even call me that in church. Go life :)
To my roommates, I am Velma, Velms, V, or my favorite alteration: Velmita. hahaha. Love it.
I still don't know if they really know how to handle me sometimes but let's face it, I'm an acquired taste... I'm not the most normal of humans hahahaha. Photo evidence as follows....
Typical sunday afternoon:
For V-day we drew roommates' names and we put together little presents for them with their favorite things. Amber ended up having me, and I ended up getting Amber. Funny how that worked out! In the end I got her a vintage Wizard of Oz book (from DI) which she LOVES - she's obsessed with Oz stuff and loves vintage things so it was perfect. I also got her Ghirardelli (however you spell it) chocolate squares which on her card it was stated as the favorite candy, and an ice cream cone cup. But before I could get all that I made her a really gay looking note (kind of an IOU Vday present because I was going out of town for the weekend), which you can see right after. I tried to make it the corniest/gayest hahaha. Success?
I also was commissioned ($) by my roommate Ashley to illustrate a children's book for class, "Dustin," which is about a dust bunny. Go figure. It's actually a cute story about Dustin trying to make it through spring cleaning. She was very particular about what she wanted as for style of drawings. She wanted it very much like a child had drawn it and gave me a book as an example of the style she was looking for. Following is one of the pages so far. I will post when I finish the whole thing. For now, I have the entire storyboard, I just need to bring it to computer form now.
In addition to that stuff I have the best calling in the world this semester which I am just so very thankful for. I am the publicity leader for Relief Society, which basically translates to I make the posters for all the activities. I adore it and I always get tons of compliments as well - some apartments just keep them on their fridges because they like them. You can't receive any higher compliment than that. I love it. Here are just a few of the ones I've done.. it's not like they're amazing or anything I just did what I thought looked good and could get ppl to go to things.
I also made my own stationary for a couple letters I sent out to people. Yup, I'm the MOST self absorbed! hahah just kidding I just liked it - you can't get any more personalized than this! Click on the picture for a larger view. That way you can read the quotes too.

I am also starting to do more art both hand drawn and on the computer for fun. I'm trying to branch off from translating a picture to cartoon form and instead create something without looking at references at all. My most recent attempt has been a Na'vi from Avatar... it's far from done (her hair is like nonexistant right now! And there's no color! - but I personally have a huge weakness when it comes to coloring things; it's never been my strong suit), but here is a preview of it.
Avatar has to be my 2nd favorite move of all time, right behind Hook. I've seen it 3 times, all in 3D and hope to be able to see it again soon. It's just amazing and a total thrill for the senses and a visual feast for the eyes.
The people I'm hoping to see it with are Quincy & Steph. Side note: I pretty much only hang out with married people, don't hate hahaha. I counted it out, when I'm not at home or school or doing errands, I'm at one of these places: James & Brooke's, Dave & Livy/John & Alli's, Erica & Mark's, Inga & Dan's, or Steph & Quincy's. I think I mostly just go to the last 3 homes though. I love them all so much. Anyways, Steph & Q haven't seen it yet and I KNOW they'd love it so I'm hoping to go to it with them soon. We'll see.
I also created their graduation present (Steph graduates this sem and Q is next sem, but I won't be here for that and I'm super impatient so I gave it to them last week). I got them a vertical canvas board (half off! woo!) because they love to paint together - esp splatter paintings, as well as these next 2 crafts. So that they make sense, you have to know that Stephanie is OBSESSED with Tabasco sauce. It is the theme for their kitchen. She is even in a sculpting class and is making a tabasco cookie jar. Yeah. SO I whilst strutting round the craft store one day (this amazing store I just discovered this semester), I just caught an idea in my mind and brought it to life as follows - hope you like it! - also, the green is more bright in person

And then I decorated this clip. Because I had leftover supplies and I wanted to decorate a clip for something so yea. hahah. Yay.
I've also been creative with hair styles. Actually this next one was a complete accident and I went with it hahah
Okay enough of that. Also I went down to Utah not too long ago for a lovely extended weekend vacation of 5 days. I got to see my cousins babies! I'd seen all but Lacey (spelling?) before but this time I got to see little precious. But for most of the night I had the deluxe pleasure of hanging out with the darling, gorgeous baby McKinley. Isn't she a doll? She kind of reminds me of Cassie's adorable Hailey.
Ty, my fave lil cousin-once-removed, also graced us with his handsome presence along with his beautiful brother Brody. Ty was so cute; on his piece of cake he got to have a candle which was lit up many times for him to blow out. I love him. And his pop & mom, whose bday we also were privileged to celebrate that weekend! Thanks for having me Mindy!
We also got to see the sassy, beautimous London (who I love making faces with)......
............and her mom, pop, and happy go lucky baby bro Madden. I love these guys - Ty actually had just seen my family, including my papa Rippstein, which made me completely jealous!!
Aaaaaaaand the guests of honor! Presenting lil miss Lacey and her mumma Tess!

The mittens always crack me up on babies. Here's one of my pretty grandma with the little sweetheart...... I don't think she wanted to let her go :)... but she let Maddie have a go at it. I never did get a chance but I like babies that are a little less fragile so I was good with McKinley. I want to call her Mickie so bad but I don't think her parents would approve. Or maybe they would. who knows. Anyways.. here's Maddie :)


The kids were all over and they were generally a happy bunch, I was impressed. lol I loved when Madden started eating the paper goods. He was way into devouring that plate!And just the happiest baby ever... I can't believe how she just kept playin and laughin and kept goin and goin. Thanks for letting me steal your child for the night!
Side note: Madeline doesn't approve of taking pictures..
In other news, we celebrated Dan's birthday recently.
Remember his 22nd?
And his 23rd?
Well this year we celebrated dear ol' Daniel's 24th hoopla! -- I should really start taking pictures at these occasions with me in them too -- this year we had heart shaped cuppie cakes with yummy Vday frosting. A bit after the fact but hey we got there! He had a great birthday - he got P90X (an intense workout program), shoes, weights, pull up bar and I got him a jar of candy :) and they are stoked to start up on that workout sched. I should probably pick that up more than them though! hahah
This last weekend I went to Utah for Inga's nephew Ethan's baptism. I look hideous in that picture but look at him - what a stud!! He's such a great kid. Inga's family is my second family. They even coerced me into attending a family event of theirs that is usually just reserved for family. Her sisters and mother claimed that I am part of the family and I am honored. The only upsetting part was I didn't get to see Mindy or Ty or Cory or Brody like I was going to. That would have been awesome. Thanks for being so understanding and willing to take me in, Mindy! I hope I can see you guys soon!
Anyways for Ethan's baptism I wanted to do something more special than just a hymnal or a bookmark or something so again whilst brainstorming in the craft store of dreams, I came across just a plain wooden box shaped to look like a book. I painted it, put paper on it and his name (which didn't turn out the way I'd wanted but oh well. It's in the past) on it......
..... and when you open it up......
... I put the paper and a CTR clip on there as well as his picture (below the papers inside the box). The papers are for him to write down what he is feeling about his baptism day and how special it was, that way he can remember it down the line.
..........Unlike me, who only remembers getting dressed hurriedly afterwards, the cake my mom made, and going out to I think it was either Sister Fulmer or Sister Chan's car (for the life of me I don't remember which one) and getting a present from her. Yeah. That's depressing that it was all I could do to remember those parts. lol.

So then we went to their family event, here in the car is DInga & Inga's younger bro Nolan.
Here are the Baker girls! From left, Trish (soon to be married to Inga's bro Stephen in May) - she's from Scotland and is so cool I love her, Inga, Melissa, Rachelle, Eliza (married to Inga's bro Ryan), and Vanessa. Now the only one left to go is Nolan hahah.
We went over to Vanessa's home for the activity and guess what?! THEY HAVE CHINCHILLAS!! I never got to hold one before and oh my goodness I shouldn't have been allowed to because I adore them waaay too much. They're like the bigger, softer version of my darling teddy bear hamsters! I think I'm going to end up getting one whenever I ever get to a place where I can own a pet. Inga had chinchillas growing up, her favorite being named Gizmo. Isn't this one DARLING!! (pardon the annoying piece of hair in my face...)
Closeup of the lil dear. Such a treasure. LOVE her!
The activity for the night involved delicious ice cream. But no one knew exactly what we were doing until Melissa & Vanessa finally told us! We were paired up (I became Nolan's date) and we were to feed each other ice cream blind folded. Going into it I knew I wasn't going to be trying to hard before we'd fight. We are too immature hahahah. Here is the before picture:
We were pumped! We ended up being drawn first and needless to say...............


...... we became the cautionary tale. hahah. After me, all the girls knew to wear a bandanna turban so their hair wouldn't get ice cream all in it, and the teams also gleaned strategies. Everyone was afraid that they'd end up being attacked by their spouses and were fearful of the same kind of fight that we had. haha. It was fun though, and for us that's what counted most.
Next it was the engaged Trish & Stephen. They were so sweet to each other it was funny. They patented the "finger method" where they found each other's mouths with the fingers holding the spoon first so they wouldn't miss and get each other messy.

Following them was the odd couple out, the brother/sister duo. Eliza couldn't eat ice cream because of something crazy with her pregnancy or something and Scott had to stay home because Gracie got sick and had been throwing up since the last night, so Ryan and Rachelle were paired up. They were pretty nice to each other - which was hilarious because of all the girls, Rachelle suited up the most. She had a turban, a big shirt, basketball shirts and a cloth hahah it was so funny. They did a pretty good job even though they missed and kept on hitting the other's cheeks hahaha.

Next came the high school sweethearts, Melissa & Alan. (sorry I don't have pictures of all these, my camera was dying and I was saving it for Dinga). They were super funny; Melissa would get it near his mouth almost every time and he would just hone in on the spoon and get it. He however unintentionally kept on feeding her HUGE spoonfuls and he would shoot too low so he'd keep getting her neck. It's funny because she is taller than him too, even when kneeling haha. They were so cute.

Then there was Vanessa & Seth, the fun loving couple and hosts of the event. Seth was a HOOT! He was definitely the life of the party and stole the show.. he kept on doing all these hilarious things that I suppose you had to be there for. they ended up with messy faces but that was probably it. I think it was hard for Vanessa to keep eating while laughing so much.

Next was the couple that reigned supreme. The seasoned marriage veterans, Stephanie & Mike - Inga's parents!!!!!! Momma Baker was feeling sick to her stomach so she wasn't to eat anything really, but we sliced some bananas for Inga's pops to feed her, just cuz she had to have SOMETHING. Oh my goodness, I was so glad these weren't my parents - I'd have died! hhahaha I think Mike's entire intention was to gross his kids out and just go crazy. He kept on sticking out his tongue and trying to feed Steph a piece of banana with his mouth hahahah and she didn't know what he was doing and was just trying to keep feeding him the ice cream LOL he just was hilarious and it was just so funny and in the end they kissed a bit and Nolan was like covering his eyes - "I'm scarred for life!!!" And all the sibs were like aaauuuuggghhh!! SO funny. After it ended, and everyone was red from good-humored embarrassment and laughing and all, Mike and the sisters were all like "Hey Trish, guess what, it runs in the family!!" hahaha and Trish took off her wedding ring - - - OH SNAP!! hahah. But no harm done she put it back on and their imminent marriage is not in jeopardy.

Which finally brings us to the newlyweds. Dan & Inga were like well how can we follow that?! hahaha. Dan started it off with a bang, grabbing Inga and bringing her down into a dip for a smokin smooch! He won for that move for sure. They did pretty good in feeding each other...

Until Dan kept on going in for kisses and she was like "NO TONGUE!! NO!" haha she almost flipped out ahahah i bet she was so embarrassed hahah tongue in front of her whole family. Love it. Kudos, Daniel!
As they kept feeding one another, Dan kept on going in for kisses and she kept on resisting; it got so ridiculous at one point hahahah Seth was like "A wife shouldn't avoid ya that much! What are you doing wrong Dan???" LOL so funny how she kept on trying to evade and fight him without giving into a kiss hahaha. In the end they wound up pretty messy but they were golden. This was a WAY fun night! I always feel so sad coming away from Inga's family's place. Well, I always feel bad coming back to school in general. Zero fun, sir. I have a billion and a half assignments, including 6 semester long projects, only about half of which are half done. AND I have that book to illustrate.

I treated myself to a movie night a couple weeks ago to escape and saw Leap Year and Blind Side. I thought Leap Year was WAY cute, and the guy was way good looking!! :) Which never hurts hahah. Blind Side was excellent just as I knew it would be. I loved it and I'm so glad Sandra Bullock picked up the Oscar for that performance - she definitely deserved it. I also had a date last week and we went to Princess & the Frog. I gotta say, I LOVED it this time. Hated it the first time I saw it but now I'm lovin it. Just sooo much better the second time. Might have something to do with the fact that it has been some time since my separation from Disney so I'm not watching Tiana's Showboat Jubilee every day and building up the story in my head to what I thought it should be. I just went in with low or no expectations and it was swell

I have reaaaaaallly been missing Disney recently. Quite a lot. I miss strolling through the parks, indulging in the magic surrounding me and just enjoying seeing the happy faces all around and seeing dreams come true. Being able to go explore with Nemo and visit different countries and learn about the Circle of Life with Timon, Pumbaa & Simba, and wish with a minimum of 14000 other people every night to an enchanting and overwhelming fireworks display! To explore the jungle or a haunted house, to become an honorary bug, to be an extra in the Indiana Jones' show, to play games with Woody & Buzz, to see a yeti or drop in a haunted hotel's elevator or to zoom in a super stretch limo to an Aerosmith concert... OH my goodness memories.. rushing back.. can't.. handle.. it............ I miss it so much. I hate being away. Disney was my home! Part of my heart is still there! The magic! The splendor! The pure joy! ... and all that coupled with cast discounts wasn't so bad either..... I just hate that the next time I will be there isn't for at least 3 years. It hurts! lol. I went once every year for the last 3 years..... and it still wasn't enough! Goodness me. I even miss my uniform. I felt too bad about stealing it in the end so of course I didn't. Because that is wrong. I wanted to sooo badly though! At least I still have my "Mandy" name tag. Too bad I can't find my "Courtneys" anywhere. *sigh*

On a less depressing note, flower arranging is progressing smoothly and I'm learning new skills. Awhile ago we practiced form and line and to do so we used play dough to create an arrangement of our choosing. Here's how mine ended up - my teacher ended up keeping it :)

And I tried my hand at my first centerpiece as well. We didn't get to choose what types of flowers or anything like that. Idk I don't really like how mine turned out - I'm not to good with color and arranging that is hard for me. But hey my roommates allow me to display it in our living room proudly so that's a good sign.

Aaaand today we made corsages. Idk what the flowers are called. It didn't turn out how I wanted but I was rushed - we weren't given enough time to do them sooo this is how mine ended up. ugh. Oh well. At least it was comfortable. I like her style of corsage so its not elastic which is either too tight or too loose (there's no good middle ground!) And yea. It would be better if I went back and made another.

On a REALLY exciting note my obsession with weddings continues and will be indulged this weekend with the Floral/Wedding show put on by the event planning, floral arranging, clothing construction, cake decorating/culinary and etc departments. I'm sad to say this is the first time I'll ever have attended. I'm thrilled though. The theme this year is focusing on popular color schemes now and what is projected to be popular in the next couple years. Pretty cool! We were watching some dvds of past shows and the exhibits looked pretty gosh darn awesome so I'm thrilled to attend. Don't worry, I'll take my camera :)

Well. Now that this blog is taken care of and off my mind I can begin on those million and a half assignments I was telling you about. Wish me luck!!